Part of a larger book project, which focuses on how the human body is defined through the process of divination, this presentation takes the turtle plastron used in late Shang divination as a proxy body for the king and studies how the plastron functions as both medium and substitute to heal the afflicted king’s body. The study also defines the king’s “body” as not limited by its skin boundary but in fact symbolically extended to include the Shang state and its inhabitants. Of special interest is the idea that the bodies, both the turtle’s and the king’s, were permeable and thus were open to the intimate influence of spiritual or cosmic agencies. Within this context, the presentation further explores the practice of exorcism, and how afflicted bodies were healed.

Early China Seminar Lecture Series:
“On the Creation of the Warring States: An Exploration of a Historiographical Staple”

Miranda Brown, University of Michigan
Friday, April 20, 2018
4:30-6:30 PM
Faculty House

For almost a century, scholars have debated about what happened during the Warring States (Zhanguo) period. Was this a period of great intellectual foment and social mobility — unlike earlier eras, was this actually a time talented men of obscure origin could rise to the height of state power based on their hard work, ability, or sheer cunning? Or was this simply a time of political violence and social upheaval? This paper attempts to reframe the question — by shifting the attention from the events to the time period itself. It asks when did historians and Chinese first recognize the Warring States as a discrete historical moment, and why?